Croydon University Hospital bank nurse Anthony Muyinda who failed to resuscitate patient is struck off

Anthony Muyinda was working as a nurse at Croydon University Hospital and was supposed to be caring for an elderly man who had been admitted suffering from hypothermia and pressure sores.

A hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard that at 7.10pm on the evening of the patient’s death Mr Muyinda noted the ‘patient appeared well’.

Twenty minutes later Mr Muyinda found the patient not breathing and had no pulse, and was very cold and pale.

But he did not attempt resuscitation nor activate the emergency alarm as he "felt the patient had been dead for more than 15 minutes and therefore any attempt to resuscitate would have been futile".

In evidence heard by the panel, a staff nurse who was working on the evening of the patient’s death, April 2, 2012, said when Mr Muyinda reported the patient’s unresponsive condition to her his manner was casual and without any sense of urgency.

According to the nurse he simply pointed to the patient and said: "Oh, he’s dead."

Mr Muyinda admitted to all seven charges put before him.

These included failing to tell the resuscitation team when he found the patient showing no signs of life, not starting CPR for the patient and not recording the care given to the patient in the daily progress and evaluation notes.

The NMC panel has decided imposing a striking-off order is the only sanction sufficient to protect the public from the nurse.

In the judgement the panel wrote: "The failings in this case were so serious that to allow Mr Muyinda to continue practising would undermine public confidence in the profession and in the NMC as a regulatory body."

At the hearing on December 16 and 17 the panel imposed an interim suspension order for 18 months to give the nurse a chance to appeal.

If Mr Muyinda does not appeal then the order will be replaced by the striking-off order.

Mr Muyinda was working at the hospital as a bank nurse rather than a staff nurse.